LE VISAGE D’ARGILE DE JULIEN ET LE MIRACLE DES ECLAIRS (PSELLUS, SCRIPT. MIN. I, 446)
THE CLAY FACE OF JULIAN AND THE MIRACLE OF LIGHTNING (PSELLUS, SCRIPT. MIN. I, 446)

Summary/Abstract: The Clay Face of Julian and the Miracle of Lightning (Psellus, Script. Min. I, 446). The text analyzes a little-known passage by Michael Psellus concerning a certain Julian the Chaldean, associated with the Dacian wars of the emperor Trajan and with a meteorological miracle. According to Psellus, Julian repelled the Dacians by using a clay face capable of unleashing lightning against the enemy.The author shows that Psellus confused two figures: Julian the Chaldean, who lived under Trajan and specialized in amulets and demons, and his son Julian the Theurgist, active during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and famous for the “rain miracle” during the Marcomannic wars. This confusion also appears in the Byzantine lexicon Suda, which sometimes attributes the same works or miracles to both Julians.The study nevertheless argues that the repeated references to Trajan and the Dacians may preserve the memory of an older tradition connected to the Dacian wars. The author links this account to a famous scene on Trajan’s Column depicting Jupiter hurling lightning at the Dacians during the battle of Tapae. Although no surviving ancient text explicitly mentions such a miracle, the image may reflect a lost tradition in which divine intervention aided the Romans.Finally, the text places this episode within the broader context of meteorological miracles in Antiquity. It compares Julian’s actions with other stories in which statues, amulets, or magical rites produce rain or lightning to protect an army. Julian’s “clay face” would therefore not have been a simple object, but rather a divine simulacrum serving as an intermediary between gods and humans in ancient theurgy.

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